Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-02-04

bard, father and brother was that they
had been among the butchered ones, and
/ no hope could be cherished that any one
| OF them had escaped.
II did seem al first that we had been
utterly crushed, and were entirely at
! Santa Annals mercy. the quality of whsch
| we now well know, and he was so
confident that he proclaimed his pur-
pose of
GENERAL MASSACRE
/ of us as fast as mis- army could get hold
/ Of rs. But we were a plucky pe0ple-a
/ character OF which, | think, we have
| more than a streak left yet-and readily
concluded that if we had to die we might
as well die fighting.
! That determination was all right, but
| all we could muster to do the fighting
! was 1873 TO meet santa Annals 1,59S
| ''greasers," flushed with triumph, and
ten times betrer armed than we We're.
! To get those 1913 we had almost robbed
| the cradle and the grave. was not
quite - years old, and know there were
not few boys Younger than l.
! And there were women in
our ranks, desperate, heart. broken
women, who only wanted TO kill Mexi-
cans in revenge for the massacre OF their
| loved ones, and then to die. Among
! those women was Polly Grayson. She
was a good-sized. muscular woman, with
/
and few men could handle a rifle better
| than she. When she came out to fight
| she cut her hair SHORT. put on a suit of her
brothers. clothes, and would have APP
! peared a good-loeKiny boy, not to be re-
marked where hoys were so plenty, but
for the cold, set light Of
! FEROClEY IN HER EYES.
1t was. at SaH JactntO, under brave Sam
Houston's Command, that we met the
MeXicans., II Santa Anna had thought 1t
worth while to concentrate the other
wings Of his army upon US, things might
have turned otitditferently, but be fahcied
that he was strong enough with his own
| column. ~
When we got the order to "charge"
yell rose up all along our line of
"REMEMBER THE ALAMop
| And,we went at them like famished tigers
| at sheep. We could not wait to do much
shooting. but rushed upon them with our
guns dubbed and beat in their skulls
| There seemed to be more satisfaction In
killing them that way, and L doubt ii one
of Us thought Of being hurt, even while he
was at the job. Polly Gravson was near
me at first, when we got into the thick OF
i the fight, and she fought like a demon,
| shrleking every time she mashed a gre aSer,
our battle-cry OF remember the AlamoW
A panic seemed t. possess the Meyi-
! cans, and surely Providence, Furnishing
their abominable treachery and hendish
cruelty, protected us in melting out
His judgment upon them. The fl int
| lasted only eighteen minutes. but in that
| incredibly short space of time we man
! aged to Kill $50 OF our hated enemies,
wounded badly 20S more and took 700
prisoners-Santa Anna himself among
| them-while we had only two killed and
| twenty-tAree wounded.
| Hhnrn 10 NO o. not hnr YOh nhi oxy0
in the history of the world. was only a
| boy then, as | said. and could not under
| stand why Santa Anna was not hanged
| as soon as he was caught for ordering the
| massacre of the Alamo. And what is
more, although am an old man now, l
! still think that is what should have been
| done with him.
Polly Grayson fought her wav into the
| very heart OF the Mexican ranks, as a
mower cuts swath into a meadow of
| standing grass, and there were 80 many
of them around her that they turned on
| her ike cOrnered rats, and began strik.
| ing at her with guns and swords from all
sides, until, in the thick Of the melee, she
got
CLIP ON THE HEAD
that knocked her down senseless. Before
they could finish her, however, the tide
of our boys swept over them and rescued
! her. When she came to her senses the
fight was over and she was in
her husbands arms. He had
Joined US the night before and mad no
idea ne wou ID find her there until he rec
ognized her on the field, Just as she was
knocked down. At first, when her ewes
opened on his face, she seemed Tightly,
! and lancied that both he and she were
dead; but directly, when the dizziness
caused by the blow had left her and she
| realized that she was alive, she wanted
| to pitch in again and kill more greasers.
never in all my born days saw a woman
so full Of fight as Polly Grayson was
that day.
By and by they got her quoted down a
bit, and then her tender wOman's heart
| surged up and she
FELL TO CRYING, sOBBTNG
for JOY that Fred had turned up alive, and
| for griet that Mel hadn't, when, all OF a
sudden, who should turn up, with a cry
of"Wh by, it's our Polly" but Mel himself.
The hair-breadth escapes OF those two
men were nothing short Of just miracu-
lOus. Fred had been shot down in the
Alamo massacre, but the bullet THAI
struck him had glanced on bis skull and
Travelled half way round his head before 1t
went out.
When he came to himself he laid still
among the corpses until dark and then
crawled0H, making his way 10 the hut of
a friendly dndian. who nursed him until
his head was all right and also bad
wound in his right leg that he had not
noticed at nrsr. AS soon as ne was able
to travel he mada haste to get into the
san Jacinto fgHt with the result l have
told. AS tor Mel, he had run away at the
| time Col. W ards band We're captured by
the Mexicans, and boy-like had STAYED
out nearly a month, haunting the river
timber, close by where the
MeXicans were, and popping
OF greasers whenever he could
get the chance, just as sort of private
! pleasure party OF his own. Again and
| again they came near to catching him.
but his fool-luck carried him through
safely until he accidentally heard that the
Texan forces were concentrating at San
JacintO for a decisive battle, when he
FASTENED 90 take hand in.
Polly GraysOn lived to see her grand
children, one of whom is the boy !
mentioned, and Pm sure neither she nor
any OF her blood ever learned to like
Mexicans any better than she did when
she was smashing their skulls like egg
shells at san Jacinto with her dubbed
rife.